Just how far can a single dollar bring you these days? Not very far, it seems. However, if one were to search hard enough, one can still find amazing deals for a single dollar. Google Play is one of them, having introduced holiday deals that will include not one or two, but three months of music for a mere $1! In fact, ‘Minecraft: Story Mode’ will cost one a mere 10 cents, now how about that?

It makes perfect sense, really, taking into consideration how many other big digital retailers in the market happen to carry out holiday deals as well. This move by Google would mean that the technology giant would want recipients of new Android-powered smartphones as well as tablets to get used to purchasing items via its storefront right from the get go.

The best deal of the lot is most probably being able to enjoy three months of Google Play Music for just $1, and this particular deal will also include commercial-free videos on YouTube Red in addition to full access to the new YouTube Music app. These deals happen to have gone live already, although one should take note that only customers who are located in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Brazil and Mexico will be able to take advantage of it.

LG has been rather quiet about developing its very own mobile chipset design for some time already, where the first Nuclun SoC will soon be followed up by – surprise, surprise, the Nuclun 2. This is not the first time that the Nuclun 2 name was brought up, and up till now, there has been no devices that were released with Nuclun 2 at its heart, although that might change with the upcoming V10 successor if rumors prove to be correct.

In other words, the LG V10’s successor will most probably be released some time in the second half of the coming year, which means it will be some time before it ends up as a shipping product. It also remains to be seen whether the Nuclun 3 will hit the streets in the near future, but as with most other cases, patience is definitely called for.

The Fairphone 2 was first unveiled in June earlier this year, where this particular handset carried a modular design while featuring majority of its components that have been sourced from conflict-free mines. It seems that this particular handset that you can purchase with a clear conscience has begun to ship to those who happen to live across Europe.

Fairphone announced in a blog post, “It’s been almost two years in the making, and some of the earliest buyers have been patiently waiting since July to receive their new phones. As community manager, I want to personally welcome the new batch of Fairphone owners to our community.” The initial 1,000 units are tipped to ship this month, before the other pre-orders follow in January 2016.

In terms of hardware specifications, the Fairphone 2 will run on a Snapdragon 801 chipset, has a 5″ 1080p screen with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP camera, with Android 5.1 Lollipop in tow. It will be a dual SIM capable handset with a microSD memory card slot and plays nice with 4G LTE networks, retailing for approximately €525 a pop.

So, there is a new Samsung smartphone that is about to be released – big surprise, that, and I say this with full a sarcasm. Still, those who want something that looks to hang out on the high end side of things in terms of design and form factor, and yet having a mid-range performer within, can always settle for the Samsung Galaxy A9.

The handset has already appeared on the FCC database, which means it has been approved, and listed as the Samsung Galaxy A9. With the green light given, it is but a matter of time before it hits the market. While very little detail has been released so far, it should not be too long now before an official announcement is made. All that one can do now is to sit tight and wait. [FCC Page]

It is quite a feeling to have a smartphone getting the latest operating system update up and running, that is for sure. After all, you can never quite tell just what kind of goodies that your handset would receive now, can you? Those who are rocking to a Windows Phone 8.1 device might be looking forward to spending Christmas with a Windows 10 Mobile update but it seems that such hopes will have to be shelved for the moment.

It seems that there will be no Windows 10 update arriving this month as originally speculated, and the time frame itself has been altered, being even more vague in nature – where it has been mentioned to be “early next year”, which could jolly well mean any time, even in April. Looks like patience needs to be had in boatloads here.

What is the world’s best kept secret? I suppose that would be a subjective question, with a myriad of answers for your picking if you were to take into consideration the different industries and niches, but where smartphones are concerned, especially with the HTC banner involved, then it would be the HTC One X9 being the next handset from the company. A set of photos of the alleged device has surfaced, and in these photos, it has more or less confirmed the overall design of the device – including its SIM card slot, power and volume button locations.

Other rumored hardware specifications include a 5.5” Full HD display, a MediaTek MT6795 SoC, either 2GB or 3GB of RAM, 16GB of internal memory, a 3,000mAh battery, a 13MP shooter at the back with OIS, and an UltraPixel front camera. All that we have to do now is to sit tight and wait for an official announcement concerning the hardware, and it is good to go.

If you would like to fancy your chances with an upcoming mid-range device that seems to hover more on the higher end scheme of things, then the Samsung Galaxy A9 would certainly fit you to a ‘t’, so to speak. After all, accessory manufacturer ITSKINS has shared more details concerning this device, with the Galaxy A9 touted to be a wee bit more compact as opposed to the Galaxy S7 Plus, never mind that both handsets will come with 6.0″ screens.

Measurements of the Galaxy A9 include 161.9mm x 81.3mm x 7.34mm, where it would be slightly taller than the Galaxy Note5, while sporting a metal and glass design, a fingerprint reader that should be able to handle mobile payments, a Full HD Super AMOLED display, and a Snapdragon 620 chipset, among others.

It looks like the upcoming flagship model from Xiaomi will feature NFC support, at least based on a document that was released by China UnionPay. Just in case you are scratching your head and wondering who China UnionPay is, they happen to be the only domestic payment gateway supplier and card organization, and hence, to see them offer detailed support concerning the newly released NFC-based payment system points to the very real possibility of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 featuring NFC capability.

After all, the Xiaomi Mi 3 was also mentioned on the list, which so happens to feature NFC, and there is no mention of the Xiaomi Mi 4 which does not come with NFC. Still, such a new payment system would be the ideal tool to see the reintroduction of NFC to the flagship model.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 will no doubt be a smartphone that many people would look forward to picking up when it is ready, taking into consideration how flagship devices are always in demand. Well, the Galaxy S7 has been said to target an early 2016 release, and some photos of the alleged device has already been snapped, although one should take into consideration that the original Weibo post is no longer there.

Of course, do take this particular leak with a pinch of salt, since it could be one of the numerous smartphones from various manufacturers that could roll out a similar looking handset. In the leaked photos, you can see a wrap-around metal border design, which seems to be the in thing at least for the next couple of years. All that we can do now is to sit tight and wait for the real deal to surface.

OnePlus did make an announcement in the previous month that the Ceramic variant of the OnePlus X will be released on November 24. True to their word, they did exactly that – although only a pitiful number of units were made available, and not only that, this was through a charity auction. Thankfully for the rest of the masses who are on the lookout for this device, it has gone on sale officially already.

Needless to say, this particular variant is available only by an invitation, although do bear in mind that standard OnePlus X invites are not good here – you will still need to snag yourself a specific Ceramic variant invite before you make a purchase. OnePlus is also on the lookout to offer additional methods of picking up this smartphone, although no further details were revealed.

The OnePlus X Ceramic will be available only in select markets, where among them include Europe, India, and Hong Kong. To date, we do know that OnePlus had made only 10,000 units of the handset available. A case of the early bird getting the proverbial worm here?